SERMON II. HEBREWS ix. 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin, unto salvation. FROM the view we have lately taken of death and judgment, we inferred our need of a Saviour: we saw a vast difference between the creature's competency and the atonements which seemed to be required for meeting these events. We saw a terror flashing from the one, and a gloom hanging over the other; for which we have not yet, in this discussion, found an adequate relief. Let us see if we cannot now find that relief in what our text declares of the Redeemer. We feel bound to take this method of expounding our text, from the example which is before us. As "it is appointed unto all men once to die, (says the passage already considered) but after this the judgment:" So, (adds the passage now before us) Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." The object then, is to show how the once offering and future appearance of Christ meet the cases of human want which we have already contemplated, to wit: the evils of death, and of a future judgment. And 1. HOW THE EVILS OF DEATH ARE PROVIDED FOR. There is a twofold sense in which the event of death may be considered. In itself considered, it is, as we have seen, a great and terrible evil; and as it has been introduced for the punishment, in part, of sin, it is a penal evil; that is, it is a judgment, not a chastisement. "Because thou hast done this, (was the tenor of the sentence) thou shalt return unto the ground, whence thou wast taken;" and it has ever been the principal pang in the sufferance of death by sinners, that they deserved death; and were enduring it as a penal evil. Other evils indeed there are in death, and evils which are not, even from believers, taken away; but the sense of guilt and its consequences, is the principal evil. This it is that hangs so deep a gloom around the dying bed-moans so dreadful a sound in the ears of the expiring sinner-makes the grave look so dark and awful to him, and gives the destroyer's hand so heavy and strong a pressure upon his bosom : "the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." Now, it is very possible, that this part of the evil of death may be taken away. If a method could be devised for clearing man of this penalty for his transgression; and if the demand from the just tribunal could be cancelled, the infliction might certainly be spared, and man, though still unworthy of the mercy, escape the evil in question. But such a method was devised, as our text suggests, and it has been carried into perfect execution. "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many :"" So he was offered-once offered, as if to tell us that the provision was expressly intended for this event, and tallied with it in being like in manner and time. "So he was once offered to bear the sins of many." The word offered, without controversy, is used in a sacrificial sense; and the import of bearing sin is clearly determined by its use in the prophet Isaiah, and by the apostle Peter: "He bare the sins of many ;" and "himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree." The whole sense is then, that Christ has suffered the penalty of death in our stead. He has suffered the full penalty. The essential pains of hell-the horrors of eternal death have been endured by him, as a surety; much more then the penal evils of natural death, which is what we are now principally concerned with. 'Himself bore this whatever that inconceivable thing death is, Christ endured: whatever it includes of dissolving pains-whatever of surrounding gloom-whatever of present remorse, and horror of conscience-whatever of prospective terror and despair, Christ essentially endured them all; and as he endured them, not for himself, but for others, and as the severest justice cannot exact more than one satisfaction, he successfully took them away. Now suppose the dying believer sees this, and it is of the very nature of faith to see it he believes fully, that Christ died for him: he believes in his divine and human character, and thus that he was a proper person to die for another: he believes that God is willing and bound by engagement to accept this satisfaction, : and thus discovers clearly, that the penalty is removed for which death was to be endured; and how should not such a view relieve him from its principal evil? It changes his whole apprehension of death it takes away his away his sense of condemnation, (though it leaves him soft and penitent still, as being the most unworthy of sinners;) for how can he be condemned when Christ was condemned in his stead? of course, it stills the voice of conscience and remorse-it takes off the sharpness of parting sympathies, anticipating a short interval, till higher and better relations shall be formed: it scatters that heavy gloom which hangs round the grave, for the body is scarce heeded, when we are looking by faith over into the land of spiritual existences; and it forever removes all fearful and prospective despairing, since salvation for another's sake, and that other such an one as Christ, and the glories of that Christ, seen by faith, as the case now supposes, makes heaven, and the resurrection, and eternity's enjoyments as sure as if they were already inherited. Oh precious and glorious faith, which helps the dying believer to such discoveries! Oh more precious and more glorious Redeemer, who hast, in so efficient a method, removed the |